Hello, everybody, and a super warm welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Miss Halliday and I'll be teaching you today.

Today's lesson is a really exciting lesson for me as we're going to be covering one of my absolute favourite poems on the Eduqas Poetry Anthology.

And that is Rita Dove's "Cosy Apologia", which is also one of the more recent poems on the anthology.

I'm really excited to explore it with you in more depth and hear all your incredible ideas and opinions about this poem.

So let's get started.

So today's lesson is called Analysing "Cosy Apologia", and by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to analyse how Dove presents her love in "Cosy Apologia".

Here are today's keywords.

So we've got mundane, we've got inseparable, interpretation, and proximity, and I'm just going to pick a few keywords out and define them for you that I think you might not have heard of before or that might be difficult to pronounce.

So I'm drawn straight to that word proximity, which can be quite difficult to pronounce, maybe because of the X, but proximity is the nearness or closeness of something.

And finally, another word you may not have heard before is that word mundane, which means ordinary or usual.

Now, if you'd like to take a moment to pause the video and jot down the definitions for all four keywords, then please feel free to do that.

However, throughout the lesson we will be returning to these keywords and defining them within context.

Here's our lesson outline for today, so how we're going to move through our learning.

We're going to begin by looking at the storytelling in the poem.

We're then going to move on to looking at Dove's expressions of love.

But let's start first of all by looking at Dove's storytelling.

So having read "Cosy Apologia", Alex, our Oak pupil had this to say.

He said, "This poem is a series of short stories that Dove tells about her life." And that is a very, very interesting statement.

I'm really impressed with how perceptive Alex has been there.

The first thing I would like you to do is reread the poem.

As you're reading, make sure you're paying really close attention to Dove's use of punctuation so that you can work out what tone of voice to use.

Once you have reread the poem, I would like you to discuss what you think of Alex's interpretation.

Do you think that he's right? Do you think that he's wrong? And why do you think what you think? So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you take some time to reread the poem in full and then consider Alex's statement and your opinion about it.

You can consider Alex's statement either on your own by bullet pointing ideas or thinking about them in your head.

Or if you have people around you today, please do feel free to share your ideas.

Discussion can really help you to form an opinion.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you reread the poem and consider Alex's suggestion.

Off you go.

Brilliant, some fantastic readings of that poem there, which is really important because a good reading of the poem equals a good understanding of the poem.

So really well done for those brilliant, brilliant readings.

Secondly, thank you so much to all of you for your fantastic opinions.

And as always with any question I ask, there was a really diverse range of opinions.

So thank you for those opinions and that some of them are really well supported.

So really well done.

Let's check for understanding quickly before we move on.

Alex's interpretation of the poem is right because everybody would agree with this interpretation.

It is his personal response to the poem.

It can be supported by evidence from the text, or it is his personal response that is also supported by evidence from the text.

I'm gonna invite you now to pause the video while you have a go at deciding which answer option or options you would like to go with.

Pause the video and off you go.

And a massive congratulations if you are able to select C and D.

Alex's interpretation, so his view or his opinion, about the poem is in fact right, because it can be supported by evidence.

It is also his personal response, okay? Which means there is no right or wrong answer and he can support it with evidence from the text, which is the most crucial thing.

Some of you selected B and said that Alex's interpretation is right, simply because it's his personal response.

That's not quite right because as well as having a personal response, you have got to be able to justify your personal response with evidence from the text.

So it is no good saying, I think this poem is about storytelling if you are not able to then give examples of why you think what you think.

So for those of you that got B, you're not quite right.

The most important thing is to be able to justify your opinion with examples from the text.

So well done to many of you who got C and D.

So I know that's some of you disagreed with Alex's statement and that's absolutely fine 'cause that's your opinion.

But I'm going to ask you to put that opinion to one side for just a moment.

And we're all going to have a go at supporting Alex's interpretation, which is obviously that the poem is a series of short stories that Dove tells about her life, not just one big story.

So what I'm going to invite you to do now is discuss and try to find examples of stories that Dove tells within the larger story of the poem.

So if you had to separate this poem out into a series of little stories, what stories can you find in this poem? Again, you can do this independently by bullet pointing the stories, or you can discuss this with people around you.

It's completely up to you and it's however you've chosen to work today.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause a video while you have a go at supporting Alex's interpretation.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

So off you go.

Wow, I am super impressed with your work there.

Thank you so much.

It was great to see so many of you able to find multiple little stories that Dove tells within the larger story of her love for Fred.

So really well done.

So here are some of the stories that Dove tells in the poem that I heard you guys mention.

So first of all, she tells the story of sitting at her desk writing a poem that's in the very beginning.

She then tells a story of a heroic knight preparing to defeat a common enemy.

She tells us the story of the fast approaching hurricane Floyd.

She tells us the story of her childhood and her teenage crushes.

And she tells us the story of two people working remotely from home but still together.

And ultimately she tells us the story of two people in love.

So what I'd like you to do now is I'd like you to try and find evidence for each of these stories that you've identified that Dove tells in the poem.

So can you find me a quotation from the poem that supports each of these stories, that shows us that Dove is telling us these stories? Again, this can be done independently or you can do it in groups, it's up to you.

Pause the video and off you go.

Now, you might want to do this by highlighting them on your anthology.

You might want to write them down or you might just want to put a little star next to 'em so that you know that that quotation justifies one of these stories.

I'm going to invite you to pause video now while you have a go at finding evidence to support these stories.

Fantastic, really well done.

And a little special shout out to anybody who recognised that actually these stories are listed in chronological order.

So Dove is telling the story of sitting at her desk writing the poem in the very beginning, and equally she tells a story of the heroic knight in the first stanza.

Okay, so well done to those of you that identified that these stories are listed chronologically and that that helped you to find evidence for them.

Really well done because when it comes to analysing poetry, it can be super useful to track your way through the poem, thinking about structure and thinking about the chronology of the poem.

So really well done there.

So what I'd like you to do now is now that you've got some evidence, you know, you've supported Alex's statement, you've found evidence for each individual story, I want you to start evaluating the relevance of these stories now.

So I'd like you to see, can you rank the stories in order of significance in the poem? So which do you think are the most important stories that Dove tells and why? Now this is a hard task and again, it's an opinion task.

So there is no right or wrong answer.

I'm asking you which stories you think are the most important in this poem.

So I'm going to invite you again to pause the video while you consider that question, either with the people around you or independently, if that's how you've chosen to work today.

I'm really looking forward to hearing your suggestions.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic.

Some really interesting orders there.

And it was great to see many of you having identified that actually Dove telling the story of two people in love is kind of one of the bigger stories here, and many of these other stories contribute to that larger story.

So well done if you identified that.

So onto our first task of the lesson now, where we're going to continue considering these individual stories and how they contribute to this larger story of two people in love.

So we know that these are some of the stories that Dove tells in the poem.

However, I want you to start thinking now, well, why do you think she tells them? So we thought already about what she tells us, how we know what she's told us, and now we're gonna start to think about that why.

Okay, why are they in the poem? Why bother telling us these series of stories? So what I'd like you to do is take each individual story and try and explain to me why you think she mentions it in the poem.

Why does she refer to it? And think about why each individual story is so important in illustrating that larger story, which is two people in love, okay? The big story of the poem here is two people who are married, who are in love, okay? How does each of these little stories help to demonstrate or portray that bigger idea? So again, you can do this through discussion if you want to, or you can bullet point your ideas independently.

However you feel comfortable working today, that's how I want you to work.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause video while you have a go at considering the significance of each of these stories.

I'm really looking forward to having some further discussions with you about this.

So pause the video and off you go to give it your all.

Fantastic and I was absolutely blown away by the depth and the level of sophistication in your explanation.

So really, really well done.

Here were some of our Oak pupils ideas in response to this question of how those small stories contribute to the larger story.

Starting with Jun and Jun said, "I think that the story about Dove's worthless teenage crushes is told to show us how noble and strong her husband Fred is by comparison.

I like that she tells us this story, as it gives us an idea of the journey that Dove went on discovering romance and then finding comfort in the security of mundanity rather than the senseless romance or seeming romance of these awkward teenage rendezvous." Okay, I love this idea from Jun, and I actually agree with him because I think that by showing us her experiences as a young girl or a young adult with these worthless teenage boys, I think it really shows us the romantic journey that she's been on, okay? And how many times she's tried to find love perhaps, and she's ultimately found everything that she wanted and more in her lovely husband, Fred.

So I'm gonna agree with Jun.

I really love that she tells us this story.

'Cause I think it just gives us that little bit of context about how fortunate she feels to now have Fred and how grateful she is for him and everything that is him.

So thank you to Jun.

I think that's a fantastic explanation of why she includes the reference to those worthless teenage boys.

Let's hear from Sam now who has a different idea with a different story.

And Sam says this, "I really like that the poem opens with the story of Dove sitting at her writing desk, waiting for the hurricane to arrive.

I imagine her sitting there looking around her at the pens, the lamps and the poor weather and looking for inspiration for her writing in her surroundings and just returning to her husband each time." So this idea that she's looking around her, she's trying to find some inspiration, but she keeps coming back to her husband as her inspiration.

"It is almost as if her husband is her biggest inspiration.

I think she returns to this idea at the end when she decides to fill her private writing time with Fred again.

It seems that his influence is inescapable, so by the end of the poem, she embraces the opportunity to write about him." Again, a really lovely and thorough explanation from Sam there.

And I really like the fact that they talk about the story that she opens with.

She really sets a scene and actually Dove is a master storyteller because when I read the start of this poem, I can imagine her just like Sam sitting at her desk looking around her thinking, what can I write about today? And just looking at every single object and thinking, "Oh, Fred bought me that", or "Me and Fred bought this on our trip to Rome." Or whatever it is that she's thinking, she just keeps returning to her husband, Fred.

And actually by the end of the poem, she just seems really grateful for the opportunity to talk about him.

And I think that that's really lovely.

So thank you so much to Sam for their suggestion, and thank you to you as well because you guys had some fantastic explanations there that I was all equally blown away by.

So really, really well done.

So we're onto the second part of the lesson now where we're gonna talk and think about Dove's expressions of love in a little bit more detail.

Starting with this image on screen where we can see a knight on a horse.

And what I'd like you to think now is, well, how does this image link to the poem "Cosy Apologia"? I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you try to remember how this image might link to the poem.

Off you go.

Well done and fantastic if you were able to remember that in stanza one of "Cosy Apologia" Dove evokes this image of Fred, her husband, as a knight in shining armour.

I'd like to unpick this image in a little bit more detail now.

So I'd like you to think, well, what impression do we have of knights? What do we associate with them and what connotations might they have? So again, I'm going to invite to pause the video, feel free to discuss this, feel free to think about independently.

But I'd like you to unpick that image of the knight.

What do we associate with knight? Why might she have used this image? Pause video and off you go.

Fantastic discussions.

Really, really well done.

And here are some ideas that I heard you say that I really liked.

First of all, nobility.

We've got honour, value, bravery, similar to nobility or that kind of nobility implies a level of morality as well.

Chivalry, so this idea of a kind of abiding by a set of an unspoken code of morality and conduct.

Skill, okay, knights are very, very skilled.

Protection, saviour, so obviously that kind of stereotype of the knight in shining armour, saving the dams in distress, it does evoke ideas about saving somebody or freeing somebody in some way.

Leadership as well.

You know, knight's very independent.

So again, that kind of evokes this idea of leadership and guidance in some way, maybe.

So some really fantastic suggestions there.

Thank you very much for those.

I think we've got a really strong collection of ideas and connotations that we can take forward and apply to the poem now.

So Dove states that her husband could be her knight in shining armour, which is a very interesting choice of verb.

Now we know that the knight in shining armour is actually quite a cliched portrayal of love, okay? It's one that we see all the time.

You know, it's repeated, it's everywhere we look.

People are describing their other halves or their loved ones as a knight in shining armour.

And it's interesting that Dove does that.

So I'd like you to think about maybe why she uses that cliched expression of love, but also that word could, which seems to stick out a little bit.

Why do you think she uses a modal verb could there? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider that question.

It would be useful for you to have your anthology open looking at this line in context for your discussions.

Please remember, you can discuss this or you can consider it independently.

It's completely up to you.

But I'd like you to pause the video while you consider the questions on screen now.

Fantastic, really well done, and some really fruitful and insightful discussions being had there.

So really, really well done.

Now let's have a look at some of the words that Dove uses to evoke the knight in shining armour image of her husband.

So she uses this word astride, she uses allow, she uses braced, glinting, and firm.

And what I'd like you to think now is, well, what tone of voice does Dove use to make this comparison between Fred and a knight in shining armour? So this might require you to read the poem out loud, or at least read these words out loud to think about kind of what tone of voice we might use to read these words? And equally, why does she use that tone of voice? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider Dove's tone of voice at this point in the poem.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions, and as Jun points out at this moment in the poem, "Dove really exaggerates in her description of her husband imagined as a knight.

She seems to be almost poking fun at this cliched comparison, but she also seems to be using it to illustrate her husband's really admirable qualities." Or his best qualities, the things that she loves most about him.

So really well done if you managed to detect that slight bit of kind of almost sarcasm or humour in some way, but also the fact that there is a level of seriousness in there as well, because she's saying that he has the qualities of a knight in shining armour.

So well done if you managed to detect that.

So let's have a think about later in the poem now and how she expresses her love in the final stanza.

So in the final stanza, what impression of the couple's married life does Dove create for us? And again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you try to remember kind of what kinds of things she says and the general picture of their life together that she creates.

Again, this can be done as a discussion or you can consider it independently.

It's up to you.

But I'm going to invite you to pause the video now while you consider that.

Fantastic, really, really well done.

Now, Dove creates the impression of the couple working together in quiet company from their shared home.

It's quite a peaceful image, it's quite a wholesome image.

You know, we've got 'em sharing an office, which is lovely.

So we kind of get this really domestic but also very ordinary depiction of their life together.

We also get the impression that the pair spend all of their time together, that they feel really safe and secure in one another's company.

And I'd like to think about that in a little bit more detail because Dove uses the word twin to describe the working setup that she has with her husband.

So I'd like you to think now, well what is the significance of Dove's use of that word twin? And what might it tell us about the couple? So again, this can be done as a discussion or it can be done independently.

It is up to you.

But I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider Dove's choice of language in more detail.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Really, really well done.

As always, it's really useful to think about a poem from multiple different angles.

So here are three different interpretations from our Oak pupils of that word twin that I did hear many of you raise.

So as Izzy points out, "The word twin shows us the close physical and emotional proximity of the couple." And remember that word proximity means the closeness, the position of something in reference to something else.

"And it shows us that they have an inseparable bond." Now, if something is inseparable, it means it can't be taken away from something else.

You can't separate the two things, okay? They're stuck together, they belong as a pair.

So here Izzy, really showing us the deep spiritual connection between these two people that is perhaps illustrated through that word twin.

And Alex adds this, "The word twin reminds me of the phrase twin flames, which shows how similar the couple are." Okay, we might use that phrase, twin flames to refer to two people that are really alike and just get on like house on fire.

"So perhaps this is why they get on so well.

It suggests to me that the pair are soulmates." Okay, lovely idea from Alex there, really good interpretation.

Perhaps Dove was trying to show us that these two belong together.

And finally, Lucus is pointing out that, "The word twin to me shows how much time they spend together.

It's almost like they're joined at the hip." They're never without the other.

So again, we're getting that really wholesome depiction of their life that they experience, that they enjoy together all of the time.

So thank you so much to our Oak pupils for their suggestions.

And really well done as I heard you guys raise these suggestions and in fact many, many more.

So really well done for that.

What I'd like to think now is using these three interpretations, I'd like to think, well, who is right in this situation? And I'd like you to discuss why you think that person or those people are right.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you discuss that or consider it independently.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions and some very interesting responses there.

In fact, all three students are right because each of the students justify their interpretations with explanations of what led them to form their interpretations.

So actually all three students are right.

If you think back to the beginning of the lesson when we talked about interpretations and what makes one right and what makes one wrong, we said that the most important thing that makes an interpretation valid is the fact that it can be justified and that it's been explained in full.

Now furthermore, considering a poem from multiple angles really shows the skill of evaluation, which is obviously where you weigh up different possibilities or options, and it shows a really deep level of understanding and consideration of that poem.

So it can be really useful to weigh up different interpretations because it enhances your understanding of the poem.

So it's really important if you can, that you consider alternative interpretations or alternative explanations for that poem.

So let's check for understanding.

True or false, there is only one right interpretation of a poem.

I'm going to give you a moment to pause the video while you decide whether you think that is true or whether you think that it's false.

Off you go.

Fantastic, I'm really, really happy that so many of you, in fact, the vast, vast, vast majority of you chose false because you're absolutely right, okay, there is not such a thing as one right interpretation of a poem.

So really well done.

What I'm going to ask you to do now is justify why that statement is in fact false using one of the two justifications on screen now.

So I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you read both statements and decide which you think is the correct reason for that statement being false.

So pause the video and off you go to do that now.

Fantastic discussions and really well done if you correctly selected A.

We know that reading is a very, very unique and personal experience and different people are gonna have different interpretations to the same poem.

There is no right way to look at a poem or to interpret a poem.

What matters and I heard many of you correctly say this is how you justify your interpretation.

It's not about the interpretation itself, but rather how explain and justify it.

So really well done if you managed to select A, you are spot on, fantastic work.

So answer the last task of the lesson.

Now we asked our Oak pupils to write a response to the following question, how does Dove present her love for her husband in "Cosy Apologia"? So here is what the lovely Andeep wrote.

He wrote, "In the final stanza, Dove describes the twin working stations that she and her husband occupy.

Dove's use of the word twin here arguably illustrates how much time the couple spend together, suggesting that they are joined at the hip because they do everything together.

This creates a heart-warming impression of their life together, one that is safe and secure, but extremely ordinary.

Dove seems to find great comfort and security in the mundanity of her relationship." Really fantastic explanation there from Andeep.

However, of course it can always be improved.

So here's some feedback that we gave to Andeep.

So we said something that went really well, so what went well, was the fact that he linked his analysis back to his impression of Doves love for her husband.

However, we felt that Andeep could have considered multiple interpretations of the poem and that would've strengthened his response, okay? So that was the feedback that Andeep got.

What you are going to do is use Andeep's original paragraph and the ideas that we discussed earlier to act on his feedback for him and improve his response by adding in multiple interpretations of that word twin.

That word twin is something that we've discussed in a lot of detail, so you should have quite a few ideas already as to what you might want to add into Andeep's response.

Now to do this, you might want to use words like however, additionally, similarly, also, and furthermore, as all of these show that you are about to expand on an idea or provide an alternative view.

So what you are doing just to be super, super clear, is you are acting on Andeep's feedback for him by adding in a different interpretation of that word twin.

What I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you have a go at improving Andeep's response for him.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how much you elevate his response.

So pause the video and off you guys to do that now.

Fantastic effort and it was great to see so many of you adding in not just one, but more than one alternative interpretation of that word twin.

So really brilliant work there.

Fantastic.

What we're going to do is undertake the following self-assessment to see how well you've done in this task.

So what I'd like you to do first is circle your use of connectives.

Now connectives are words like the ones I gave you, which were however, additionally, similarly, also, and furthermore.

There are however many more connectives that you might have used.

Things like moreover.

So if you have used any other connectives, obviously feel free to circle them as well.

I'd then like you to highlight or label each of your alternative interpretations in a different colour.

Okay, that is so that you can see how many you manage to include in your response, okay? So you're gonna highlight them and count them to see how many different explanations or interpretations you were able to provide.

So what I'm going to invite to do now is pause the video while you undertake that self-assessment and celebrate your own success in this task.

So pause the video and off you go to do that now.

Fantastic, I'm seeing lots of circles and I'm seeing lots of different colours on those responses, which tells me that you've absolutely smashed that task.

You've done it really successfully.

So a massive, massive well done from me.

I'm super impressed.

So to summarise the learning from today, well first of all, arguably Dove tells a series of stories in the poem that all bear relevance to the main story, which is her love for her husband.

Dove also uses humour to poke fun at cliched comparisons of love, whilst also using them to illustrate her husband's admirable qualities.

Furthermore, Dove portrays her relationship as mundane, but very secure and safe, which she seems to be really grateful for.

And finally, a person's interpretation of a poem is super unique to them, and as long as it can be supported with evidence, it's completely valid.

And actually it can be really useful to consider multiple interpretations of a poem to really enhance your understanding of it.

I'd like to thank you for coming to today's lesson.

I have absolutely loved hearing all of your fantastic ideas and suggestions and seeing how much your confidence with giving alternative interpretations has grown as the lesson has moved along.

So thank you very much for your contributions and your engagement today.

I massively look forward to seeing you next time, and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day, See you later.